Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (see previous post) was mostly panned by critics and didn’t fare too well at the weekend box office, but it features some of the most sophisticated animatronic puppetry ever seen on film and for that reason alone I think it’s worth checking out.

Most people probably won’t appreciate just how much of this film was done with practical, on-set puppets involving no CGI. Especially impressive is the villain Mr. Tinkles, which is played exclusively by an animatronic puppet with no live animals or computer animation involved. Animatronic Supervisor Dave Barclay – who built most of Mr. Tinkles’ mechs – calls the furry feline the “most sophisticated animatronic that has ever been built”.

The team of puppeteers who worked on the film included Dave Barclay, Bruce Lanoil, Michelan Sisti, Adam Behr and Geoff Redknapp. Animatronic cats, dogs and other animals were built by Romaire Studios with Dave Barclay supervising.